I rebuilt the server in August 2015 and these notes were updated then.

We use a ‘server’ and not a ‘desktop’ ISO so that this is a smaller installation. Hence we only use a lightweight ‘desktop’ like Fluxbox. We still can use our Windows desktop, so we only need lightweight tools for this virtuarl machine.

Start with ISO

Once you have an ISO you can start it up and install it into VirtualBox. You will need to set the proxy if at the university so that you can download more software as needed in the box. Just follow the defaults for the most part and let it use the whole partition. Set yourself easy username and password. This is a virtual machine remember so you don’t need to be paranoid. You can also tell it to install Postgresql during this phase too.

When the installation is done and you’ve logged back in again with your new account you can start adding the software you want to use for the application.

(No longer necessary for Aberdeen, but kept here in case you’re doing this somewhere else.) I found you need to set the proxy again for the session with the command:
export https_proxy=http://proxy.abdn.ac.uk:8080

This setup uses fluxbox as a lightweight desktop (right-click) for any options. You start the ‘desktop’ from the command line with ‘startx’ command and can right-click for menu options. When you’re done you drop out of the desktop with ‘right-click->exit’.
You can stop the virtual machine with ‘machine->Close and select ‘send Shutdown signal’ ‘so that pick up where left off before.

#might not need next two steps, try setting proxy first, but may need to also run this as su and thus set password for root. Try to avoid that though.
#set password for su
#switch to su and add proxy details so that su knows them.
export http_proxy=http://proxy.abdn.ac.uk:8080

#change permissions on shared folder so default user can use this folder and edit files (edit in Windows on and run commands in Linux)
use this to add ruby to vboxsf folder permissions
sudo adduser xxxxxxx vboxsf
#need to log out and back in again for this to take effect

Winding up

You’re now done and should be able to do all that you need to do in a Linux box on a Windows machine. This should take lots of the pain of Ruby running on Windows away. So that you have a better idea of what you’re doing you should also look to these links for more help:

you can edit the menu for fluxbox so that Terminator and Scite are included by opening .fluxbox/menu from your home directory and adding in the three lines starting with [exec]. The result just adds them to the end of your menu, so if you want them grouped in another location then follow the instructions at the top of the full menu which is included there under the ‘etc’ directory.
NOTE: For ABDN we don’t need to declare the proxy any longer, but I leave it here in case it helps someone else.

You will now have a basic system to run what you need for the AWAD course using ruby and rails. You will need to learn more about using Ubuntu, and linux commands, but this will get you started and provide a system where installation of ruby gems and other tools should go smoothly.